New VN localization company: MoeNovel

[kyrt]

There is no way I will pay for a poorly translated and censored game by a company who alienates its real fanbase. If they want to alienate me then they don't get my money...simple as that. I'm glad people are re-translating it and adding in what was cut but this does not mean I will pay moenovel for their poor quality and release. If they ever go back and do a proper translation and bring back all of the cut content then I will potentially buy this game but since moenovel itself has said this is not its goal I don't have any interest in this or any future games they do unless the games remain uncut and properly translated.

[Crimrui]

Honestly, the removal of h-scene is no bother to me whatsoever if they are not part of story that will hinder the overall progression and growth of the character. However, rewriting scenes that they are far different from original is entirely different thing and I do not appreciate. So, do it right or don't do it at all. I don't want to play through 2nd hand vision, I want to appreciate it as it originally was.

[Okami]

if anyone can explain what are they actually thinking and how are they benefiting from the all-ages version, please tell me. I might be extremely stupid, blind or mentally disabled because I really don't understand it.

There are a few possibilities:

1: you can more freely promote your product if it is 12+ and something decent than 18+ with alot of sex scenes.

2: they might want to try to get more of younger people 14-18 yr into VNs.

3: they might want to try to get more Fameles to VNs as probably not many girls want to play something that could be called a porn.

4: maybe their goal is to get more people into VNs as people who don't watch hentai would play 18+ VN's because they would assume that it is same as hentai (90% porn 10% story). I myself made the same mistake and didn't want to play 18+ VNs before I accidentally played one without knowing that it has an H-scenes.

I am not saying that I agree with them but you asked for explanation so I give you a few examples of wath they might be thinking.

I also agree that bast option would be to just add skip H-Scenes option in many but they might not be able to because of some technical problems.

[Jiharo]

I would never buy any localization since I rather support the company that produce the game and that is Pulltop.

 

Besides I never bought any VNs from MangaGamer nor MoeNovel or whatsoever. I can read Japanese so I don't see why should I support those localization company when some of their works are shit(I'm talking about MN here since I've seen many complains).

[Famichip]

From an interview recently posted on MoeNovel's Facebook page:
 

Part X : So the version that was sold in the west has all of the scenes aimed at adults removed. How did this come about? Were there any other methods you considered?

"At first we considered releasing the orignal version with all of the content aimed at adults intact.

However, as I mentioned earlier, we learned from our marketing research that the visibility of visual novels is low. We thought that making a title that was aimed at adults only wouldn't have as wide a reach.

This is due to western markets having stricter regulations regarding depictions of underage sexual expression than Japan does.

Also people can't really recommend playing a game featuring underage characters, or a game that expresses sexual scenes with characters that appear underage on their blogs, or on Twitter or Facebook.

Also, it would limit the number of media outlets that could introduce the game. Furthermore, it would also limit the number of publishers who would handle the title. With the content aimed at adults left in the game, it began to appear more as a hindrance.

The first thing MoeNovel would like to do is to increase the visibility of visual novels in western markets. If we were to release "If My Heart Had Wings" in the original state, we determined that it would be disconnected from that concept, so this time we released the title in its current state.

Speaking metaphorically, we thought that, even if we planted a seed that would become delicious fruit, in an uncultivated field, that plant would just wither away."

[pedropars]

From an interview recently posted on MoeNovel's Facebook page:

 

It would be so much easier if they had picked a VN with no H-Scenes from the start instead of cutting so much content and even rewriting scenes.

[TotalDereMan]

To be honest, the first visual novel I played, I did it for the lulz. My friend had described it as a game where the goal was to "get with" disabled girls. And then the feels hit me when I wasn't expecting it. Now I'm addicted to visual novels.

 

If you take out the H-scenes, how are you going to attract perverts similar to myself?

[Famichip]

Next part of the interview. Seems that there is a possibility of an adult version, but knowing how MoeNovel loves their censorship I wouldn't get my hopes up.
 

Part XI : In the future, do you think it will be possible to release both a version for the general public and a version aimed at adults? I think there are a lot of people in western markets who like to play a version aimed at adults.

"I think you're right. If we can skillfully cultivate a base, I think we will look into that kind of expansion."

 

[Pabloc]

I don't know if I find it sad or funny, that everyone is concentrating on such an insignificant and easily fixable issue as dumb censorship, but only a few comments mention the main problem - horrible, inaccurate translation that barely resembles English language. Censored or not, their future releases will be completely worthless anyway if they won't seriously fix their TL quality.

 

Maybe those of you guys who have FB should go there and point out what is the REAL issue here? Otherwise those MN retards will only keep babbling about this censorship BS. Well, unless you are fine with shit TL, that is... >_>

[RusAnon]

I don't know if I find it sad or funny, that everyone is concentrating on such an insignificant and easily fixable issue as dumb censorship, but only a few comments mention the main problem - horrible, inaccurate translation that barely resembles English language. Censored or not, their future releases will be completely worthless anyway if they won't seriously fix their TL quality.

 

Maybe those of you guys who have FB should go there and point out what is the REAL issue here? Otherwise those MN retards will only keep babbling about this censorship BS. Well, unless you are fine with shit TL, that is... >_>

Noone except small core VN fans care about tl quality (and even then, most of these core readers read stuff in JP so they aren't intended audience). Just look at all these utterly retarded official translations of JRPGs — people are quite happy with them and keep buying this shit, so there's no real commercial reason to invest into tl quality.

[Darklord Rooke]

Noone except small core VN fans care about tl quality (and even then, most of these core readers read stuff in JP so they aren't intended audience). Just look at all these utterly retarded official translations of JRPGs — people are quite happy with them and keep buying this shit, so there's no real commercial reason to invest into tl quality.

 

 

[Kaguya]

About choosing other VNs- You need to know that the people trying to license games here don't have that many choices. Most of the companies that make "good" VNs don't have an interest in trying another market. So I kinda think that this "couldn't be helped".

 

It's easy to say that they are bad, and they obviously have some flaws, but I think trying for a new audience is something good. I mean, even fuwanovel is about >making visual novels popular in the west< and, no matter how badly it's performed, I'm rooting for anyone who is trying to do such a thing.

 

Yes, it was a poor game choice, and yes, it was done poorly, but I'm perfectly okay with they removing content from the VN. Translating a VN by itself changes the content. No matter how closely it looks like the original, it's not the same thing, as it will change and/or lose part of it's meaning once the language is changed anyway.

 

I think caring to much about the original is silly. If you want to keep the original meaning that badly, learn JP. I'm okay with  a good story, no matter how much it changed the original.

 

So, about moenovel- I liked the concept, I disliked the way it was done.

[Amorim]

 

This was about a hour ago.

[Famichip]

Part XII : Can you tell me about your next project?

"Well, we're currently planning it so I can't really give any details but we are planning to release a game with a heartwarming story with charming artwork."

 

It's probably pretty obvious of what game is going to be butchered released next.

[Darklord Rooke]

 

This was about a hour ago.

 

Good to hear. I'm hoping Moenovel succeeds in their goal of courting the Western audience. Despite what the naysayers say, success for Moenovel can only mean good things for the medium.

[Pirkaf]

If by "all the support from the community" they mean all the voices of fans being pissed off by their censhorship and horrible translation, then they're right.

[Amorim]

Good to hear. I'm hoping Moenovel succeeds in their goal of courting the Western audience. Despite what the naysayers say, success for Moenovel can only mean good things for the medium.

I consider this success a good and bad thing.

 

Good because it's nice to know that more people are showing interest in VNs. Without a doubt, this is something that will help the industry because the current industry would surely appreciate more fans willing / with the chance to buy localized VNs.

 

It's bad because it has been proven that despite ignoring the feelings of a lot of VN fans by censoring a lot of content there are a mountain of people still supporting Moenovel. Even if many of them didn't know about the censored content, this is still a win for Moenovel and it'll encourage them to continue to release all ages versions of VNs originally +18 and not release any kind of patch to restore the original content.

 

I don't mind that much the removal of h-scenes but altering the script to not include some jokes, edit kiss scenes and edit CGs without any explicit content is something that I can't bring myself to agree with. It'd be much better if Moenovel right from the start picked an already all ages VN.

 

For now, I'll wait for the next Moenovel announcement.

[Chocolatemilkgod]

I could care less if it was just H scenes, I skip past them anyway. But:

 

A ) Having a low quality localisation and

B ) Removing actual parts of the story

 

Causes me to start to take issue. If they choose a VN that's less reliant on adult themes and actually do a good quality localisation, then I'll be all for them; I'm all for a new company translating. 

[Darklord Rooke]

It's bad because it has been proven that despite ignoring the feelings of a lot of VN fans by censoring a lot of content there are a mountain of people still supporting Moenovel. Even if many of them didn't know about the censored content, this is still a win for Moenovel and it'll encourage them to continue to release all ages versions of VNs originally +18 and not release any kind of patch to restore the original content.

 

I don't mind that much the removal of h-scenes but altering the script to not include some jokes, edit kiss scenes and edit CGs without any explicit content is something that I can't bring myself to agree with. It'd be much better if Moenovel right from the start picked an already all ages VN.

 

For now, I'll wait for the next Moenovel announcement.

 

If Moenovel is to have any success in the West, they'll need to ignore the wishes of the eroge community. The eroge community is not large enough to support localisation, and they won't be able to widen the audience while pandering to the eroge crowd. So if you like eroge you'll be better off ignoring Moenovel, because they've made it quite clear they're ignoring you. Which is the smart thing to do imo. There'll always be fan made patches which restore censored content if that's what you're looking for. Patching games should be nothing new for those into PC gaming.

 

As for the translation quality, the translations will improve. Translation quality is far better than some of the early JRPGs which came to Europe and America, so I'm not worried about that. It's also better than some translations of classic literature. Like some (or most) of the Constance Garnett translations, for example.

 

EDIT: @Kaguya about choice of VNs: Moenovel is a sister company of Pulltop, so they'll be localising Pulltop's stuff.

[Amorim]

The eroge community is not large enough to support localisation

I pretty much agree with your whole post but I'd like to mention something regarding what I quoted.

Let's take Mangagamer as an example. Mangagamer has stated some time ago (can't remember when) that if a part of those who only download their games bought them, they'd be profiting in basically every title. If we had access to the actual numbers I'm sure that the difference between the buyers and downloaders would be downright abysmal.

 

Because of this, my reasoning is: It's not the case the eroge community isn't large enough. The current case is more like the current eroge community doesn't have that many people willing / with the chance to buy localized VNs (for the sake of argument let's not mention the possibility of better titles being localized because for them to be localized a company needs to have enough profits to cover all costs).

 

Well, this is something that not only applies to the eroge community but to others as well. The main difference is that those communities are much bigger and therefore the number of those that may actually buy games also increases. Piracy will always exist so a way deal with it is to increase the number of potential buyers.